South Africa’s Independent Examination Board (IEB) recorded a decline in its matric pass rate for the class of 2025, though the overall performance remains among the strongest in the country.
The IEB achieved an overall pass rate of 98.31%, down slightly from 98.47% in 2024.
This marks the lowest IEB pass rate since 2020, but still reflects consistently high outcomes among private school candidates.
Private school matric results slip
Here’s a look at the IEB 2025 results, as reported by BusinessTech:
- Overall pass rate: 98.31% (down from 98.47% in 2024)
- Bachelor’s pass rate: 89.12% (from 89.37%)
- Diploma pass rate: 7.83%
- Candidates who wrote: 17 143 (up from 16 304 in 2024)
- Exam type: National Senior Certificate (IEB)
Why the pass rate dipped
IEB chief executive Confidence Dikgole said the slight decrease should not be seen as a cause for concern. According to Dikgole, small fluctuations are expected as the assessment body continues to grow.
The number of pupils writing IEB exams has increased steadily, with more schools migrating to the board and a rise in online schooling. Dikgole said this growth naturally introduces minor variations in aggregate results, a pattern that is commonly seen in stable examination systems internationally.
The IEB serves mainly private schools and operates its own version of the National Senior Certificate, separate from the government-run NSC exams.
In 2025, just over 17 000 candidates wrote the IEB exams. This is small compared to the public system, where more than one million pupils wrote the state’s NSC exams across more than 9 400 examination centres.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube is expected to announce the official 2025 NSC results later today, 12 January 2026, with individual results available from 13 January.
While the IEB saw a slight decline in its pass rate, expectations remain that the national results could improve on 2024’s NSC pass rate of 87.3%.
